Yesterday, Deadline announced that Legendary Television is developing a true crime drama series based on perhaps the most infamous literary true crime story of the 20th century: Norman Mailer’s (ultimately disastrous) relationship with forger-turned-murderer-turned-writer-turned-murderer-again, Jack Henry Abbott. As well as Read more >
In case you haven’t noticed all of the Seasonal Content on the internet this week, it is almost Halloween. It is almost Halloween, in a pandemic, again. [Insert joke about masks here.] Even though we all know that the real Read more >
Look, horses are really hard to draw, but I quite like Franz Kafka’s idle doodle (above) of a “horse” and rider (the action, the motion, the urgency!), just one of several dozen drawings that Max Brod refused to burn, along Read more >
This week, Merriam-Webster added 455 new words and phrases to its online dictionary. As always, the list makes me feel deeply uneasy about where the world has been and is going, and features a fun/confusing mix of new and old Read more >
This evening, at a virtual ceremony hosted from the Austin Central Library, Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of its eighth annual Kirkus Prizes in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. Each of the three winners, chosen from the 1,531 Read more >
Given that Fools Rush In, it’s a good thing Matthew Perry waited until his 53rd year to go the Whole Nine Yards and write an autobiography, a process that requires a person to reflect on life—become 17 Again, if you Read more >
In the last few months, a conflict has erupted over the future of the Honresfield Library, a collection of rare manuscripts by the Brontës, Robert Burns and Walter Scott. In May, Sotheby’s announced items from the collection were slated for Read more >
Yesterday would have been Sylvia Plath’s 89th birthday, so today we’re remembering her by going back to the start of her work: Plath’s first known poem, published when she was only eight (and a half) years old. Eight-year-old Plath submitted Read more >
This week, Vintage Books published Oedipus Trilogy, which collects Bryan Doerries’s new translations of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. For those of you who prefer to watch than read theater—or want to do both—Theater of War Read more >
October is Filipino American History Month, which commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States. On October 18, 1857, the Spanish sailing ship Nuestra Senora de Esperanza landed at present-day Morro Bay, California. Spanish soldier and Read more >
It’s a big day for feminist fairytales: The Paper Bag Princess, written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko, has been optioned by Universal Pictures as a live-action film, in one of Canada’s largest feature film deals to Hollywood. Read more >
Sylvia Plath was born 89 years ago today. A published writer from age at, she left behind a vast catalogue of poetry and prose, especially given her short life. One of her most charming works was a rhyming children’s book Read more >
On this day in 1940, Maxine Hong Kingston was born in Stockton, CA. Kingston, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, took the literary world by storm with her seminal work The Woman Warrior (1976), which blends autobiography and mythology. The Woman Read more >
Early this month, the Swedish Academy awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah, for “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and Read more >
Did you know about the J. Anthony Lukas Awards Prize Project? Well you should if you’re working on nonfiction that focuses “on topics of American political or social concern” (which, frankly, represents a very wide range of possible themes). For Read more >
The first time I saw a horror movie, I was 11. It was at Christy Z.’s birthday party, and for some reason, her parents let us watch The Eye. The Eye, starring Jessica Alba, is a very scary movie about a Read more >
As All Hallows’ Eve approaches, Poe, Shelley and Lovecraft are top of mind—but many other canonical writers had spooky inclinations that flew under the radar. For instance, novelist and illustrator William Makepeace Thackeray was known for his satirical novels; but Read more >
“It was a dark and stormy night.” You’ve heard it a million times, seen it used in seriousness and in jest; it is the quintessential and cliché opening to a gothic novel or a ghost story, or as Zachary Petit Read more >
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin is running an attack ad against Governor Terry McAuliffe featuring a mother that says McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would let parents protect their children from reading explicit materials in schools. Before you tune Read more >
On this day in 1900, Henry James sent his first letter to Edith Wharton, which kicked off a lifelong friendship and mentorship. Both authors had ties to the historic 21 Washington Place: James grew up in a now demolished building Read more >
